By Deng Forbez
These are some relevant questions for the various ministries in South Sudan. They’re solely from a concerned citizen.
1. Dear minister of roads and bridges, how many kilometres of road is tarmac? How many kilometres of clear feeder road do we have? How many bridges have you put up?
2. Dear minister of education, how many high school students graduate every year, and how many make it to the university? How many public high schools do we have?
3. Dear minister of housing, physical planning and environment, how many public houses have you built? How many housing projects have you done?
4. Dear minister of health, how many qualified doctors are in public hospitals? How many public hospitals do we have? What’s our country’s health policy?
5. Dear minister of youth, how many youth programmes have you created? How many youth projects are you supporting? How many youth entrepreneurs have you supported?
6. Dear minister of irrigation and water resources, how many households do you supply with clean water? How many irrigation schemes have you established?
7. Dear minister of agriculture, how many agricultural projects have you carried out? How many local farmers have you supported through your designed programmes?
8. Dear minister of Higher education, science and technology, how many institutions of Higher education have you established? How many science projects have you carried out through the students?
9. Dear minister of labour, public services and human resource development, how many human resource programmes have you created and implemented? Why are public servants not paid on time? What is the minimum wage?
10. Dear minister of animal resources and fisheries, how many functioning fisheries have you established? How much do we raise from animal resources and fisheries?
11. Dear minister of peace building, how many peace building projects have you established? And what are you doing to bring peace to the communities with less or zero peace?
12. Dear minister of wildlife conservation and tourism, how many tourism programmes are going on? How many tourists do we receive per year? What’s the income from tourism? What wildlife conservation projects have you put in place to protect our wildlife? What is the most likely animal species facing extinction? What are your policies against poaching?
13. Dear minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, what’s your disaster management plan? How have you managed the floods in the country? How have you responded to the hunger crisis in the country?
14. Dear minister of mining, what is our most mined mineral? What is the budget from our mining projects? What our best minerals? What mining projects are currently running? What has been mined since independence?
15. Dear minister of electricity and dams, why is the country still struggling with electricity 15 years later? What is your electrification plan for the whole country? Do you have plans to supply clean energy?
16. Dear minister of commerce, industry and investment, how many industries do we have? What is our country’s investment policy? How many investors do we have?
17. Dear minister of culture, youth, and sports, how many cultural activities have you established? How many cultural sites have you established? How many sports activities are running, and how many youth are involved in such sports activities?
18. Dear minister of East African affairs, why are South Sudanese still paying visa fees to enter some, if not, all East African countries? Why do students still pay fees higher than those paid by their fellow students from East African countries?
Deng Forbez is a South Sudanese activist and an artist